The United States of America is a nation with a proud history. A proud history, that is, of kicking ass in sports and shoving our own peculiar brand of pop culture down the throats of every other country on the planet. But since a certain Texan took office in 2000, it has been our ass that has been kicked on playing fields around the globe and our throats that have been choked by the cultures of other nations.

Coincidence? Consider the events of just the past few weeks. The NBA finals pit a team led by an American player — the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron “King James” James, much hyped as the next Michael Jordan — against the San Antonio Spurs, a team featuring a bunch of foreign guys. The foreign guys blew out the team with the American superstar, and the MVP of the series was Tony Parker, who was born in France. Yes, France.

Not that this is anything new for the NBA these days. A few weeks earlier, the league announced the winner of its MVP award: Dirk Nowitzki, a German. His victory breaks a two-year stranglehold on the trophy held by Steve Nash, a Canadian.

Two weeks ago, golf’s US Open was captured by Angel Cabrera, an Argentinean. Cabrera’s win meant that, as those with scorecards at home already know, this most prestigious of all golf tourneys hasn’t been won by an American for four years.

This past week, 2008’s presumed Democratic presidential front-runner, Hillary Clinton, after much ballyhoo, finally chose a campaign song. Her quest for the presidency — that’s president of America — will take Celine Dion’s “You & I” as its soundtrack. It’s a mawkish tune which a) sucks, and b) was originally written for an Air Canada commercial and is sung by a chanteuse from Charlemagne, Quebec, which, I’m pretty sure is north of the 49th parallel.

And in May, the nation — as it now does every year — came to a halt to watch the finale of American Idol, a show that crowns a young American under-thirtysomething as the cream of our national singing crop. What can be more American than that, you ask? Hmm. Perhaps a show less Simon-ized. Idol was created by Simon Fuller (a Brit), developed by Simon Jones (a Brit), and has as its de facto figurehead and true star Simon Cowell (a Brit). Co-executive producer, along with Fuller, is Nigel Lythgoe (a Brit). Happy Fourth of July.

Some of my best friends are foreign …
Mind you, we’re not outraged by the impressive achievements of French basketball players and Canadian songstresses. We’re not xenophobic Fox News watchers. We don’t have posters of Lou Dobbs over our beds and assault rifles under them. We love people with funny names and with peculiar-smelling cuisines. And we fully buy into the fact that America is a big ol’ melting pot, and we totally want to hold hands and buy the world a Coke.

Ferrell behavior Will Ferrell might spend a lot of his on-screen time with his pants off, running and screaming, but in person, promoting his new movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby , he can be as buttoned down as Tony Snow before the White House press corps.

The ultimate Schill? For a brief moment in late 2004, some people feared that Curt Schilling might pull through for President George W. Bush the way he did for the Sox.

Putting up W’s How is it that the least popular and possibly worst chief executive in American history has inspired no lasting impersonations?

A tragicomedy of errors It was not until after George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were narrowly re-elected that many Americans began to realize that the Iraq War represented a dangerous moment in American history.

Dumb or dishonest? For some reason, wisdom maintains that Republicans hold an edge over Democrats when it comes to commanding the military and conducting foreign policy.

Can Bush be beaten? This article originally appeared in the November 15, 1991 issue of the Boston Phoenix.

Bush’s high crimes President Bush’s penchant for authoritarianism — for executive power unchecked by either Congress or the courts — has been laid bare by his aggressive and unapologetic defense of the indefensible: the secret surveillance of Americans without warrants.

Iraq: Five years later Five years later, President George Bush and his minions were wrong about the need to fight in Iraq, wrong about the way to fight in Iraq, and wrong about what the war in Iraq would ultimately cost.

Political art Tucked inside President Bush’s stinker of a 2009 budget are a series of proposals that would shamefully cut funding for the arts.

INSIDE THE TEDXDIRIGO CONFERENCE | September 14, 2011 I arrived at TEDxDirigo on September 10 feeling rather less than confident about the state of world. The tenth anniversary of 9/11 — and the awful decade that unspooled from that sky-blue morning — was on my mind.